The same pattern and colors as the crystals in his apprentice badge.
The four cornerstones of Calypsos.
Jake pointed across the room. “It’s here! That’s got to be it.”
Kady squinted—then stiffened beside him. “The jewels,” she said, understanding instantly.
Jake rushed forward.
“Wait!” Kady called out, but she wasn’t warning him to come back. She wanted to keep up with him.
They circled around the slab to get a better look.
Together they gazed into the cabinet.
“That has to be the lock for Dad’s key.” Stepping back, Jake reached to his neck and fished out the pocket watch.
“But how are we going to get inside the case?” Kady asked.
Jake was beyond subtlety. He was ready to smash it open and deal with the consequences later. Turning, he searched the room for something heavy. Breathless with anticipation, he leaned a hand on the slab for support.
Kady called to him. “What about picking the lock?”
Jake turned to tell her that was impossible—
—when cold claws clamped onto his wrist.
Jolting away in horror, he jerked back his arm. The mummy’s dried claws remained latched onto his arm.
“Jake!” Kady yelled.
He stared down at the grakyl on the slab. Its eyes had opened and bore into his, full of fire. The claws turned icy on his wrist as faint words filled his head.
“I see you …”
No! Jake recognized that hoary voice. It was the Kalverum Rex, the Skull King.
“Now come to me …”
Jake’s arm was yanked with such force that he was pulled out of this world and into another. Darkness consumed him, swallowed him whole.
Words, louder now, scratched out of the blackness. “The Key of Time … mine at long last …”
Jake screamed, but he had no voice here.
“With the Key, I’ll destroy all you love …”
Jake felt himself still being pulled by his arm, drawn ever closer to the Skull King. He fought the inevitable pull, but there was no substance here, no toehold to catch himself.
Help me!
As if hearing his plea, a band of fire snapped around his other wrist like a lasso of fire. It snagged his arm and refused to let go. Jake was soon stretched between the two forces.
Claws of ice on one side, a band of fire on the other.
Thwarted, the Skull King screamed in fury. “NO!”
Even with his arms about to be ripped from his sockets, Jake still found comfort in that cry of dismay. At last those icy claws ripped loose. Nails dragged across the back of his hand, scratching to grab him again.
Then he was free.
A curse still chased after him.
“I will find you … Mark my words … You will be mine …”
The words faded back into the void as Jake’s body flew through the darkness, drawn by the fiery band around his wrist.
But to where?
As if hearing this thought, too, Jake felt himself flung away, spinning head over heels. Darkness shredded around him, pierced by blinding light. Sights and sounds swirled like a tornado of confetti: the screech of a hunting bird, the flash of a golden sea, a river of rock.
A scream burst from his throat as the world righted itself and crashed down upon him. He fell to his knees—
—into sand.
Jake stayed kneeling, not comprehending what he was seeing. Under a burning sun, a vast sea of sand spread all around him, rising and falling like waves. Adrift and alone, he gaped at the vastness.
Had he been transported to Pangaea again? If so, where was the jungle? Where was the valley of Calypsos?
He slowly gained his feet.
Where am I?
PART TWO
6
STRANDED
Jake turned in a slow circle and surveyed his new world. He shaded his eyes against the stinging brightness, while the heat threatened to beat him down. The air smelled oddly of burned cinnamon.
As his eyes adjusted to the glare, he spotted a few spiky bushes and a scattering of tall green plants that might be in the cactus family. Hopefully that meant he could find water. Off in the distance, a few towering pinnacles of reddish black rock stuck out of the sand dunes like boats riding a rough sea. Farther out, a strange haziness blurred the horizon. It was odd enough to draw his eye, but he had more important concerns at the moment.
He stared up. The blue was so bright, it made his eyes ache. The sun was halfway up the sky—or maybe it was halfway down. He had no way of knowing.
All he knew for sure was that he needed to find shade, to get out from under this blazing sun.
“HELP! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?”
Jake touched his lips, thinking the shout had come from his own mouth. He was certainly thinking those words. He turned in the direction of the voice. It sounded like someone in trouble, which pretty much described Jake’s condition, too.
Happy for company, he climbed the ridge and called out. “Hello! I’m coming! Hang on!”
Another person shouted to Jake’s left, this time a girl. “ PIN? IS THAT YOU?”
Jake crested the ridge and spotted a gangly figure sheltered behind a red boulder below. The boy was all limbs and neck. His curly, mud brown hair was long in the back and cut straight across his brows like some Roman centurion. He was also soaking wet—and buck naked.
The boy turned toward Jake, cringing in fear and covering himself, then he straightened in shock and recognition.
“Jake?”
Jake could not believe it himself. “Pindor!”
Despite the impossibility of it all, this was indeed his friend from Calypsos. Pindor Tiberius, second son to Elder Marcellus Tiberius, both descendants of a lost Roman legion stranded in Pangaea centuries ago.
Jake trudged down the far slope to meet his friend, filling his boots with hot sand. “What are you doing here?”
Before he could answer, a gleeful shout erupted to the left. He turned to see another familiar figure come running down the slope. Her dark hair flew behind her like a pair of raven’s wings. She wore a richly embroidered shirt and a long skirt tied at the waist and slit to mid thigh. In the sunlight, her eyes flashed a brilliant emerald, matching the jade necklace bound around her neck.
At the sight of her—of both of his friends—the hopeless despair that had settled over Jake’s heart receded.
“Mari,” he whispered in disbelief.
Marika Balam was the daughter of a Magister back in Calypsos, and the first friend he’d made here. She and her father were of Mayan descent, her people stranded in this savage land fifteen generations ago.
Marika flew up to him and hugged him tightly. “You returned!”